How a Gamecock fan traded a Bojangles biscuit for a piece of Williams-Brice
The first phase of the Williams-Brice Stadium renovations began in the days after South Carolina’s 2025 football season ended. Construction crews started demolition of the east side’s ground level, the southwest ramp and the Floyd Building areas of the stadium on Dec. 1.
One Gamecock football fan saw the demolition as a chance to get a piece of Williams-Brice Stadium.
Michelle Ross is a “third-generation Gamecock” and a creative gift giver. The 37-year-old interior plant designer, who is originally from Columbia but lives in Chapin, had the idea of gifting a piece of the Williams-Brice Stadium rubble to her father while driving to meet a client one day in late December.
“I remember stories of my dad telling me, when my mom was pregnant with me, they used to let you stand on the ramps at Willy-B, and my first game was in the womb,” Ross said. “I just grew up going to Carolina football [games]. I’m a diehard fan, the entire family are Gamecocks. ... I just thought it would be cool to have a piece of that.”
The idea of gifting a piece of Williams-Brice is great, in theory. The challenge: How could she pull it off?
Ross took some inspiration from a woman who went viral on social media a few years ago for pulling off a series of trades to get a house.
Ross didn’t want a house. She just wanted a piece of the rubble.
“I was like, there’s no way I can’t finagle a piece of that concrete for Bojangles,” Ross said. “Because, who doesn’t like Bojangles, you know? So that’s kind of where the idea came from.”
As luck would have it, there’s a Bojangles conveniently located a literal stone’s throw away from Williams-Brice Stadium on Bluff Road.
So Ross, armed with a steak biscuit and some Bo-Rounds, marched off with the intent to pull off the unique trade .
“I felt I was on a secret mission,” Ross said. “I parked where you’re definitely not supposed to park behind the Cockaboose, and had to run up the street because there’s no sidewalk right there. I was definitely dedicated and on a mission.”
Trade negotiations
Ross posted up close to Bluff Road near the spot where Shane Beamer and his players walk into for the pregame Gamecock Walk.
“ I realized that all the guys are standing on top of the giant pile of destruction,” Ross said. “I had to wave them down. So I was just trying to do that really quickly before getting kicked out.”
Eventually a somewhat confused construction worker walked over to her. That’s when the trade negotiations began.
“The guy that I finally got to come over, he was like, ‘You want to do what? You want a piece of that? It’s just trash now,’” Ross recalled. “I’m like: ‘No, no, that is Williams-Brice Stadium. Yeah, I want a piece of that.’”
Ross got the construction worker to agree on the trade (even though one of his co-workers ended up with the steak biscuit). All she needed to do now was pick her rock.
“He was like, ‘Well, how big of a piece do you want?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I need to carry it back to my car,’” Ross said.
When the worker appeared hesitant, Ross upped the offer: “Hey, there are also Bo-Rounds in this bag, if it helps to know that.”
Reaction to the trade
Ross documented her mission on X/Twitter. Like any good piece of trade news, the posts went viral.
Her first post on Dec. 30 — a picture of her holding a Bojangles bag with the caption “Y’all think they’ll trade me for a piece of Willy B?” — has over 200,000 views. The follow-up post from about 20 minutes later that pictured the rock has nearly as many views.
“I had no idea it would be a banger,” Ross said. “It was very funny. I had a lot of good interactions from it. I’ve been in this fan base my entire life, so I’m definitely part of the Gamecock Twitterverse. … I enjoyed all the interaction.”
Ross will soon gift the rock to her father, Don . And she plans to put the rock in a case — similar to Howard’s Rock at Clemson.
“I’m marrying a Clemson fan, and I always give him a hard time about their rock at Clemson,” Ross said. “I thought it would be really funny for us to have our own little family rock. ”
